


Hell Away From Home

by UnmovingGreatLibrary



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5512670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnmovingGreatLibrary/pseuds/UnmovingGreatLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okuu keeps Orin warm during a snowstorm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hell Away From Home

**Author's Note:**

> Touhou Secret Santa 2015 gift for [nadepaper](http://nadepaper.tumblr.com/), who asked for warm and fluffy orinkuu. Enjoy!

“Orin! Hey, Oriiiiiin!” The cold wind tore at Utsuho's clothes, kicking up little tornadoes of snow where it whirled around the trees and howling when it plowed into the hills behind her. Somewhere back there, near the base of Youkai Mountain, was the cave opening where she'd stepped out onto the surface. With any luck, it was where Rin had come out, too.

“Oriiiiiiiiin!” Utsuho cupped her hands to her mouth and bellowed, but the wind smashed the sound into nothing right in front of her face. It was almost infuriating, after a lifetime spent in caves where a good shout could echo for kilometers.

The surface was weird like that. The surface was weird in a lot of ways, but weather was one of the main ones. Satori had warned her about it, when she'd agreed to let her come up to look for Rin. “It's winter up there,” she'd said, standing on her tiptoes to wrap a scarf around Utsuho's neck. “So you shouldn't spend too long in the open. If you can't find her, come back down. Rin goes up there a lot. She knows how to take care of herself.”

It was a good thought, but the one problem: Utsuho wasn't sure where the entrance to the underworld was anymore. The wind was kicking up drifting curtains of snow, and she could barely see a few meters in front of her face. So, with no better ideas, she trudged forward, through snow up to her knees.

“OOOOOOORIIIIIN!” Utsuho took a deep breath, preparing herself for another bellow. The trees around her creaked in the wind. “OOOOOOO—“

She cut off, as something crashed down onto her back.

“H-hey!” Utsuho straightened up and scrambled to reach for the thing, only for it to claw its way upward and onto her shoulder. It wasn't until she felt soft fur pressed to her cheek that she realized it was a cat. Rin's cat form, to be precise. Her fur was matted and cold with water, but she looked more annoyed than anything else.

“Oh! I found you.”

Rin meowed accusingly, and Utsuho scrambled to defend herself. “Lady Satori said I should look for you...!”

Another meow.

“You could have been hurt or something!”

Rin narrowed her eyes and gave a softer meow.

Utsuho frowned, glancing back the way she'd come. In between gusts of wind, she could just barely see the outline of the mountain overhead. Picking out any smaller details was going to be impossible. “Um, well, I'm not sure! I didn't think it would be this bad. I think it's over here?”

She pointed back toward her rapidly fading line of footprints, already being scoured away by the wind and falling snow. Rin's gaze followed her finger, and she gave a meow that sounded rather like a sigh. She jumped off of Utsuho's shoulders and bounded across the surface of the snow for a few meters, then turned and beckoned Utsuho to follow her with a flick of her head. After a moment to process that, Utsuho followed Rin's lead back toward the mountainside.

* * *

“Yannow,” Rin said, and flopped down against the cave wall. Back to her humanoid form now, she looked a bit more miserable, with her sodden clothes hanging heavily from her. “Usually, the one goin' on the rescue mission wouldn't be the one needin' the rescue, dontcha think?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn't know it would be this bad!”

“I'm a cat, dummy. I've got fur, and when the weather picked up, I found a nice hole in a tree to hide in until it blew over. Until I heard you hollerin' down there. You're just lucky my ears're so good.”

“Yeah, I guess so. So, um... what now?”

The cave that Rin had found was definitely not the one that Utsuho had come up from. It was little more than a hole in the side of an outcropping, a tunnel that led a dozen or so meters into the mountainside before it ended. It was enough to hide them from the weather, but still chilly. At the mouth, the wind howled and moaned.

“We wait,” Rin said. “Same as I was goin' to do, except there's two of us now.”

Utsuho huffed, but she couldn't suggest a better plan. This rescue mission thing was turning out to be harder than it had sounded. At least this was more familiar than being outside. Even now, after a few years of trips up to the surface, she found it uncomfortable. She always felt like she was going to float into the sky and fall upward forever. Here, with a nice, solid stone ceiling overhead, she felt much more at home.

A gust of wind hit the mouth of the cave at just the right angle to send it ricocheting down the entire length. Rin flinched, shivering. Utsuho looked over her with concern. “Are you still cold?”

“Eh, maybe a little,” Rin admitted, even as she curled on the floor. “Nothin' to worry about, though.”

“Huuuuh...” Utsuho squinted at the air, getting a feel for its composition. It was a trick she'd never been able to explain to anybody, especially on the repeated occasions when that green-haired shrine maiden had pried her for more details. She didn't really know how it worked. She could just tell how much of the... _stuff_ around her was suitable for fusion.

Here, it was a lot. She cupped her hands in front of her, and squinted at the air between them. Little glowing ribbons of plasma flowed inward, pulling material from the surroundings, and she pushed them together, compressing them. The air roared with heat, and light poured out between her fingertips. A new star was born.

Utsuho carefully lifted it up and placed it in the air above their sitting area. She was pretty proud of this one. It was a white-hit little ball of energy, and hotter than usual, thanks to her squishing it down extra hard and adding some heavier materials from the rocks. It felt like it would be stable for a while. Longer than she'd hopefully need it. She pulled her hands back and smiled at her handiwork. “How's that?”

Rin tilted her head to the side to inspect the thing. “Pretty nice, sis. Still think it's pretty neat that you can do that. Beats the pants off any of my tricks.”

“Yeah? You really think so?” Utsuho reached over and gave the star a poke, sending it wobbling drunkenly for a few seconds. “Those humans still beat me, though.”

“Eh. I wouldn't worry none about them.” Rin rolled over with a yawn and stretched out on the floor, basking in the heat. “They're good at fightin' youkai and stuff, but you're the only one who can do this kinda thing.”

Utsuho nodded in satisfaction and settled back against the wall, just as another gust of wind made its way through the cave, blasting apart the comfortable cocoon of warm air they'd built up. Down on the floor, Rin shivered against this onslaught. Utsuho glanced toward the cave mouth. It wasn't like she could just block it off and wait for the weather to calm down. But then again, maybe...

She pushed herself up and scooted across the floor. Sitting with her back facing the cave mouth, she started unwinding the scarf from her neck. Rin looked up at her curiously. “What're you doin'?”

“Um! Just a thing.” When the scarf was loose, Utsuho let it drape down over her shoulders, then patted her lap. “Come here.”

“Huh?” Rin glanced between the scarf and her lap, trying to figure out what it was all about, but gave up with a slight shrug. “Eh, alright.”

Rin pushed herself off the floor and crawl-crept over to sit in Utsuho's lap. Utsuho guided her in to lay up against her, then busted out her secret weapons. Carefully, she wound the scarf around Rin's neck too. When it was in place, she turned until her wings naturally stretched almost from wall to wall of the cave, blocking off the wind, “... how's that?”

Rin pulled her head back as far as the scarf would allow, getting a good look at the setup. “... really thought of everything, didn't ya?”

“Uh-huh! This way we can both be warm!”

“Heh.” Rin smirked to herself and leaned back in, nuzzling her cheek against Utsuho's shoulder a few times as she got comfy. “Smarter than ya give yourself credit for.”

“Mmhm!” Utsuho glanced back over her shoulder, toward the mouth of the cave. “So, um... how long do we have to wait?”

“Dunno. Weather can last a while. Could be a few minutes, could be a few days.”

“Days...?” Utsuho's wings gave an anxious flick, as she tried to remember how many hours that was. The day/night cycle didn't mean much underground, but she felt like it was a lot. “I really am bad at this rescue thing...”

“Nah.” Rin stretched out, sprawling atop her, while her tails gave lazy little flicks of relaxation. “This is way nicer than freezing in some dumb tree. Ya did good, Okuu.”

“Oh! Good.” Utsuho shifted side to side, adjusting her posture, and rested her chin on Rin's shoulder. When she found a comfy position, she let her eyes drift shut. She and Rin relaxed under the warmth of the tiny star, while outside, the cold wind howled.


End file.
